Flue cleaner



S. 8. POOLE.

FL'UE CLEANER.

-APPLICAT|0N FILED SEPT. 29. 1920.

Patented May 16, 192

.ton, in the county of SAMUEL S. POOLE, OF BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS.

FLUE CLEANER.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented May 16, 1922,

Application filed September 29, 1920. Serial No. 413,481.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, SAMUEL S. Poona, a citizen of the United States, residing at Bos- Suffolk and State of Massachusetts, have invented certain new and usefulimprovements in Flue Cleaners; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

This invention relates to fine cleaners and more particularly to flue cleaners adapted for use in removing the incrustations and scale. from the interior of boiler tubes.

Various forms of flue cleaners have heretofore been provided and have usually comprised a tool adapted to be secured upon the end of a rod and to be reciprocated through the interior of a boiler tube. Such tools have been provided with cutting or scraping memhers adapted to engagethe scale on the interior of the boiler tube and to loosen the same as the tool is reciprocated through the tube. The tools have with a wire brush for the purpose of com pleting the operation of cleaning the interior of the tube after the scale has been loosened and cut by the scraping members. Because of the diztliculty with which boiler scale is loosened and removed, both the cutting inembers and the brush are subjected to severe abrasion and wear down, so that in order to maintain the tool in an operative condition adapted to perform the cleaning operation efficiently, it is desirable that both the cutting member and brush should have provision for adjustable expansion in order to compensate for wear and in order that the cutters may be adjusted to enter the tube. Furthermore the cutting member and brush often wear down at unequal rates so that it is desirable that they should be adjustable independently of one another.

Accordingly, one object of the present invention is to provide a flue cleaner having a cutting member and a brush both of which may be conveniently and adjustably expanded, preferably independently of one another, so that both may be maintained in an oper: tive condition adapted to perform the cleaning operation efliciently. A further object of the invention is to reorganize and improve the construction of flue cleaners in order to provide a more efficient, durable and practialso been provided cal flue cleaner than has heretofore been produced and which is adapted to be manufactured economically.

The particular features of the invention will be pointed out in the claims at the end of the specification.

in the drawings illustrating the preferred embodiment of the invention Fig. 1 is a longitudinal. section; Fig. 2 is a cross section on the line -2, Fig. 1; Fig. one of the expansible bearings, an elevation brush.

The flue cleaner. illustrated in the drawings comprises, in general, a cutting member and a brush mounted upon opposite end portions of a support. The cutting member comprises a plurality of cutter wheels or rowels rotatably mounted upon an expansible bearing. Tlhe bearing is carried by spring members and the contractive force of the bearing servos tohold the outwardly turned ends of the spring members against cam surfaces in each of two cam members mounted upon the support. Provision is made for expanding the cutter wheels, and for this purpose one of the cam members is slidably mounted upon the support. The resiliency upon the spring members permits the cutter wheels to yield when the flue cleaner is inserted in a boiler tube. The brush comprises a plurality of sections mounted on the second end. portion ofthe support, each of which consists of a Wire coil preferably of a few turns of twisted steel wire, from which a large number of steel bristles extend outwardly. Provision is made for expanding the wire coils in order to effect adjustment of the brush and for this purpose a conical wedge is forced between an e'xpansible bushing and the supporting rod in a manner which will. be described and operates to expand the individual coils.

Referring to the drawings, the improved flue cleaner comprises a cutting member 10 and a brush 12 mounted upon opposite end portions of a supporting rod 13. i

The cutting member 10 comprises a plurality of toothed cutter wheels or rowels 14: preferably of hardened steel and which are loosely mounted upon two or more ring bearings 15. Each ring bearing 15 compriscs a coil 16 of still wire tightly wound and of such diameter as to form a bearing of considerable surface for the cutter wheels 14.

and Fig. 4. is of one of the sections of the 3 is a detail of A stiif reinforcing wire 17 is extended through the coil 16. The reinforcing wire 17 is held within the coil 16 by end washers 4C5, through a small hole 46 in which the wire ends of the coil 16 are threaded thereby completely closing the end openings of the coil. A plurality of washers 18 serve to space the cutter wheels 1 1 apart upon the bearing 15. The ring bearings 15 are extended through and' supported by loops 20 in spring members 21. The spring members 21 are normally held in spaced relation about the supporting rod 13 by the cooperation of the outwardly turned ends 22 thereof with cam surfaces 23 of two cam members 25, 26. The

lower cam member 25 is secured in fixed relation to the supporting rod 13 preferably by being driven onto a knurled or otherwise roughened portion 27 at substantially the center of the supporting rod. The second cam member 26 is slidably mounted upon the supporting rod and is held from upward movement by a nut screwed upon the upper threaded end of the supporting rod.

From the description thus far, it will be apparent that the cutter wheels are held in any desired adjusted position by the cooperation of the contractive force of the ring bearings 15 on the one hand, and by the outward thrust exerted upon the ends of the spring members 21 by the cam surfaces 23 of the two cam members 25, 26. As the flue cleaner is inserted into the interior of a boiler tube, the cutter wheels 14 engage the inner wall of the tube and are yieldingly but firmly held incontact with the inner wall by the resiliency of the spring members 21, and operate as the tool is reciprocated through the tube to cut and loosen the incrustation and scale from the interior of the tube.

After the flue cleaner has been used for an extended period of time and the teeth of the cutter wheels 14k have become worn, it is de siralole that the cutter wheels should be expanded so that they may again operate at a maximum elliciency. By screwing down the nut 35 the spring members 21 are cammed outwardly thus causing the ring bearings 15 and cutter wheels carried thereby to exand. The cutters may also be conveniently adjusted to enter the tube and readjusted if necessary during the cleaning.

It is preferred to employ at least two sets of cutter wheels mounted upon two expansible bearings as shown in Fig. l, and the openings between the ends 38, 89 of the bearings 15 are arranged at different points around the periphery of the tool. In this manner a continuous periphery of cutter wheels is presented to the interior of the tube so. that scale upon all portions thereof will be subjected to the action of the cutter wheels.

The-brush member 12 is mounted upon the second-end portion of the supporting rod 13 and comprises a plurality of sections 50, each of which consist of a coil 51 of two or more turns of stiff resilient twisted wire. from which a large number of wire bristles 52 are extended radially as shown in Figs. 1 and 1. The wire bristles 52 are preferably extended between the strands of the wire during its manufacture, so as to form an integral part thereof. The sections oi? the brush are mounted upon an cxpansible bushing 55, preferably consisting at a pl rality of bars having tapered end portions 56 and 5?.

Provision is made for expanding the bushing and to this end the lower portion of the cam member 25 of the cutter 10 is provided with a depending portion 60 having tapered slots (31 in which the upper tapered ends 56 of the bars are received. The tapered lower ends 57 of the bars cooperate with a conical wedge loosely mounted upon the supporting rod 13. The conical. wedge is adapted to be forced between the tapered ends 57 and the supporting rod 13 by a cap member 66 screwed upon the threaded lower end t the supporting rod 13. As will be apparent from an inspection of Fig. 1, when the cap member 66 is turned to the right the wedge is forced between the supporting rod 13 and the tapered ends 57 of the expansible bushing 55 and operates thereby to expand the same outwardly the upper tapered ends 56 sliding in the tapered slots 61 of the cam member 25. In this manner the individual sections of the brush are simultaneously expanded so that a uniform expansion of the entire brush is e1- i'ected. A set screw 70 serves to retain the cap 66 in any desired adjusted position upon the supporting rod 13. A sheet metal cap 62 is driven upon the depending tapered portion 60 of the cam member 25 and serves to deflect the boiler scale and to prevent it from clogging the core of the brush. The lower end of the cap 66 is provided with a threaded socket adapted to receive the end of a rod 7 6 in order to enable convenient reciprocation of the flue cleaner through a boiler tube.

Having thus described the invention what is claimed is 1. A flue cleaner having, in combination, a support and a cutter mounted on the support, said cutter comprising a plurality of longitudinal spring members, a plurality oi expansible bearings carried by said spring members, a plurality of cutter wheels mounted on each bearing, two cam members mounted on the support adapted to engage the ends of the spring members, and means for adjusting the position of one of the cam members to cause outward movement of the longitudinal spring members to effect expansion of the cutter wheels.

2. A line cleaner having, in combination, a support and a cutter mounted on the supthe support, the brush port, the cutter comprising a plurality of ongitudinal spring members, a plurality of expansible bearings mounted on the members, each bearin consisting of an outer wire coil and a sti reenforcing wire extended therethrough, a plurality of cutter wheels mounted on each bearing and two cam members mounted on the support and engaging the outwardly turned ends of said spring members, and means for adjusting the position of one of said cam members on the support to effect adjustment of the cutter wheels.

, 3. A flue cleaner having, in combination, a support, a cutter and a brush mounted on comprising a plurality of coils, each of which consists of a relatively few turns of wire, a lar e number of bristles extended outwardly rom said wire, an expansible bushing having bevel ends between said coils and the support, acam member mounted on the support and adapted to cooperate with one bevel end of said bushing, a conical wedge loosely mounted on said support adapted to cooperate with the second bevel end of said bushing, and a cap screwed upon the end of said support and capable of forcing the conical wedge bespring tween the support and the lower end of said bushing to expand the brush.

4. A flue cleaner having, in combination, a support, a cutter mounted on one end portion of the support, means for adjustably expanding said cutter including a cam member secured in fixed relation to the middle portion of the support, said cam member having a depending tapered portion, a brush mounted upon the second end of the support and comprising a plurality of wire coils each of which consist of a relatively few turns of wire and a large number of outwardly extended bristles, an expansible bushing having opposite bevel end portions interposed between said coils and the support, and l'iaving the upper bevel end portions of said bushing engaging the tapered portion of said cam member, a conical wedge slidably mounted on the lower end of said support and capable of being forced between the lower bevel end portions of the bushing and-the support, and a cap screwed upon the end of the support and adapted to force the wedge between the bushing and support in order to expand the brush.

SAMUEL S. POOLE. 

